


Stars in His Eyes

by ahnakins



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: Rebellion Era - All Media Types
Genre: AU, Alderaan, Alternate Universe, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Drama, Dysfunctional Family, Emperor Anakin, Familial Love, Family, Gen, Lightsaber Battles, Love, Sad, Sith, Sith Anakin, Skywalker Family Feels, Tatooine, The Force, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-23
Updated: 2016-08-07
Packaged: 2018-07-26 05:13:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7561765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ahnakins/pseuds/ahnakins
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Anakin Skywalker is free of his suit, and free of his master.<br/>He goes back to Tatooine, and there he discovers two presences that call to him from across the galaxy.<br/>His children.</p><p>(AU, approximately 10 years after Episode III)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. prologue

He stands on the desert, his only true home. It was where he felt most free. And that is a contradiction in itself. This is the place where he was a slave. But it was where he came from.

(“Who is my father?” Anakin asks as a young boy. 

His mother hesitates. “The desert,” she says.)

He feels young again, the new limbs wanting to explore everything, like a child. He has paid a price for them. His master is dead. But that is a relief.

(He can still hear his master’s screams as he was impaled on Vader’s lightsaber, echoing in the wind.)

The suns are setting, and their dim red light cast an eerie glow upon the sand. The shadows of the dunes twist as the wind picks them up and reshapes them. A constant cycle of change and rebirth.

( _They say that the desert is an ugly place_ , he thinks, _but truly it is a place of beauty. And it that beauty, it can be unforgiving._ )

He lightly closes his eyes, and lets the Force flow through him in a way it has not done for ten years. It lifts him up, taking the heavy weight off his shoulders and letting him breathe again. There are no longer any false limbs that hinder his ability in the Force. He is at the height of his power.

(The wind is picking up speed, and Anakin dimly registers that he should find shelter.)

And then he feels presences that are _there_ as surely as the wind is blowing, and he knows that these presences are important, but he cannot tell why.

(A young boy sits in the dunes, and a woman calls to him. The boy gets up and runs to his aunt.)

The presences persist, they tell him something that is just out of reach. Like a bright, pulsing light, just out of his vision.

(A girl sits in a courtyard, studying small flowers that creep their way up through the cracks of the pavement.)

Vader focuses on the presences, on the children. Why do they call to him like this? They say something, their voices muffled by the miles between them.

(The wind is blowing faster, and a sandstorm must be approaching. But Vader doesn’t care right now.)

And then he can finally understand what they say, as if they suddenly burst from still water and sent ripples across the whole galaxy.

They say, _Father._

(The thousands of stars are reflected in his eyes, and the sand swirls around him. But even though he hates sand, Vader smiles.)


	2. chapter one

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beru figures it out first, her brown eyes widening and becoming sharper. “Anakin,” she breathes, and she moves to cover Luke.

Vader tracked the boy — _his son_ , he reminds himself —to this place, and now he simply stands and watches. Last time he was here, he was burying his mother. He can see the small gravestone, weathered down after years out in the harsh winds.

He wonders if she would be proud of him. If she would still love him after all he has done. Or would her love for him crack, like the ground she is buried in?

His son’s presence in the Force pulses, a bright shining light stuck in a barren desert. His aunt and uncle are there too, but they are fainter. Like someone threw a cloth over them.

Vader shakes his head, then walks towards the homestead, briskly walking down the steps until he arrives in their home. Fools. Their mistake is that they are too trusting.

Of course, Vader thinks, that was his own mistake too. He never should have trusted Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, Padmé, the Jedi, and Palpatine. Where had that led him? To be surrounded by dead bodies and guilt and loss.

He decides he will never trust anything again.

Vader pauses at the threshold, watching.

Owen is ranting about faulty speeders, so its only the boy that notices the strange man standing in the doorway. He stares, and Beru follows his gaze to the man who glares up at them from the fiery depths of hell.

“Luke,” Owen says firmly, standing up. “Go to your room.”

“I want my son,” Vader says.

“You must be mistaken. Get out of here,” Owen says loudly.

Beru figures it out first, her brown eyes widening and becoming sharper. “Anakin,” she breathes, and she moves to cover Luke.

“No.” The corners of Vader’s mouth twitch up in a devil’s taunt. “They call me Vader now.”

Beru and Owen are flung back into the wall, crumpling to the ground. Vader stalks around the table, to the boy who stares back at him.

“Who are you?” Luke asks, blue eyes squinting up. Anakin’s eyes. But not Vader’s eyes.

“Your father,” Vader replies, and he sends a little suggestion through the Force.

Luke falls asleep instantly, and Vader picks him up and holds him close.

Vader carries his son out of the house, and they walk across the sands under the twin suns back to his ship.

+

They arrive at the larger ship quickly.

“Tarkin!” Vader strides through the doors, holding the boy in his arms.

Tarkin looks up from his files, giving a look of general disgust. “What is that?”

“My son,” Vader says. He lays the boy on a couch, making sure he is safe. “See to it that he is cared for.”

Tarkin scowls. “I am not a babysitter, Vader—“

“ _Emperor_ ,” Vader reminds him. “ _Emperor_ Vader.”

Tarkin glares, but sends a pair of stormtroopers to take the boy to Vader’s quarters. “And what if he wakes up?”

“He won’t,” Vader smiles. “He’s under the influence of the Force.”

Tarkin frowns, but nods.

“I need transport to Alderaan right now,” Vader continues.

“Why would you need to go to Alderaan?” Tarkin asks lazily, returning to his files.

“I have… business to attend to with Bail Organa.” Of course, it’s not the kind of business Tarkin suspects. No, Vader plans to reclaim his daughter from right under Bail’s nose.

“There will be a cruiser waiting for you,” Tarkin says, waving Vader on.

Vader walks away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, leave a kudo and tell me if you liked it?


	3. chapter two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Obi-Wan Kenobi arrives on Alderaan, and Vader witnesses a storm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> trigger warning for implied torture

Obi-Wan Kenobi sits on the marble bench, his sand-encrusted hood pulled around him. The deserts have not done him well, and he looks out of place in Aldera. He is waiting patiently.

That is all he has done for ten years.

Footsteps alert him to another presence, and then Bail Organa rounds the corner, dressed in finery. He stops abruptly, watching the man that he once considered a friend.

Obi-Wan looks up, his piercing blue eyes find Bail’s, and that is all that is needed. Bail sits by Obi-Wan, as if the last ten years never happened.

“My friend,” Bail says, unsure whether to laugh or perhaps cry. He grasps Obi-Wan’s warm, rough hand in his own. “What brings you here?”

“I’m afraid there is a danger,” Obi-Wan says.

Bail frowns. “Danger?” His thoughts immediately stray to Leia.

“Luke was abducted a few days ago.”

“By whom?” Bail asks. but he knows who.

“Vader,” Obi-Wan says, confirming Bail’s worst fears. “He’s after the children.”

“Leia,” Bail says quietly. “What can we do?”

“Don’t worry at the moment,” Obi-Wan says. “Vader doesn’t know she’s here. And I can protect her.”

Bail nods silently.

Obi-Wan smiles sadly. “It will be okay, Bail.”

Then he stands, pulling his hood back around his aged face and sets off. Bail does not ask where he is going. He knows that Obi-Wan will keep close watch over his daughter, and there is nothing to be frightened of.

It begins to rain.

In the mountains, Darth Vader watches.

**+**

Storms didn’t happen on Tatooine. Maybe it was because it never rained, but Vader had never questioned it. When he first experienced a thunderstorm on Coruscant, he thought the world was ending. He ran, panicked, to Obi-Wan and his Master explained.

After that, storms intrigued Vader.

He dragged Obi-Wan to the window every time lightning flashed, and watched with awe as the clouds lit up. He thought it was beautiful, how something so soft could be home to something so dark. That the clouds, with their gentle forms, would share their home with the sharp, burning lightning. Little did he know that the storm would become the perfect metaphor for him.

Once he turned to the Dark Side, storms frightened Vader.

He had been subject to his Master’s Force-Lightning many times, and the bright jolts that once fascinated him now terrify him.

When he is all alone in the cave on Alderaan, the low rumble of thunder rolls through the valley.

And Vader panics, because he knows what’s coming. The electricity cuts across the sky, slicing it in two, and Vader yelps, backing away from the cave entrance.

Then the rain begins, and it’s all too much for Vader when lightning bolts split the clouds and is reflected in the raindrops that are pounding down.

He sits on the cold stone floor of the cave, hands over his ears, eyes closed, knees tucked up to his chin. He stays like that for the duration of the thunderstorm.

(He swears he can hear the voice of Palpatine.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading!


	4. chapter three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leia sneaks out again, because Dad’s talking to a strange man in the courtyard and Mama’s sick.

Leia sneaks out again, because Dad’s talking to a strange man in the courtyard and Mama’s sick. She’s done this before — she knows the passageways and the doors and the places no one bothers to check.

It’s dark outside, and it’s pouring down and lightning splits the sky in two, like huge cracks in black glass. 

She sets off up the mountain path, to her cave. Only she knows where her cave is — well, her dad does too, because he was the one who found it— and that’s where she goes when she feels like there’s too much. When she needs to be alone.

But when she enters the cave, soaked to the bone, there is someone in there. A man huddles in the corner, alone. He looks up at her, and she’s shocked to see that his eyes are yellow.

“Who are you?” she asks, even though she should be running away.

The man simply stares. Thunder groans above them.

(He looks familiar to her, like a dream she forgot a long time ago.)

Finally he speaks, and his voice is a hoarse whisper as he says, “I am Vader.”

Leia tilts her head; it sounds vaguely familiar. “That’s a funny name.”

Vader gives a small smile, then asks, “What’s your name?”

“Leia.”

“Leia,” Vader repeats. He seems to be thinking very hard about something. “And who are your parents, Leia?”

Leia frowns. “Well, my Mama’s the Queen, but she’s not really my Mama. Same as my dad.”

“Do you know who your real Mama is?”

Leia screws up her face, trying to remember. “Dad — Dad said something to Mama when he thought I wasn’t listening. Pa— Padma? Padmé?”

Vader’s yellow eyes widen. “Padmé?”

“Yeah,” Leia says.

Vader suddenly gets up and hugs her tightly, and Leia pushes him off. “Who are you?” she asks again.

There are tears in Vader’s eyes as he says, “I’m your real father.”

Leia frowns, her small brown eyes studying him. When she does this to Dad, he tells her she looks like a Senator he used to be friends with. When she asked him why they aren’t friends anymore, he told her that sometimes a person goes away and doesn’t come back. Leia told him that she knows what death means.

“Why should I believe you?” she asks warily.

“Let me show you,” Vader says, and he closes his eyes. 

Leia decides to imitate him.

“Try to _feel_ the world around you,” Vader says, and Leia tries to do what he says.

Then she really does feel it, and it’s a feeling she has only known once in her life.

When Leia was seven years old, her tutor told her a story about a mysterious group of warriors who used an energy that enveloped the entire galaxy. Leia went to her room that night and tried to use that energy, and to her surprise — after a little bit of trial and error — it worked.She had run to her Dad and told him all about it. But to her dismay, he told her that what she did was dangerous, and that she should never do it again. She was disappointed, but she listened and never used that energy again.

Until now, with this strange man who calls himself Vader and has the same face as her, except for the colour of his eyes.

Leia opens her eyes, and Vader does the same.

“Did you see it?” he asks her.

She nods. “It said something.”

Vader smiles with a hint of pride. “What did it say?” he presses gently.

Leia screws up her face in concentration. “It said… it said I would walk among the stars. It called me Skywalker. And…” Leia pauses. “It called you Skywalker too.”

“That is a name I do not go by anymore,” Vader says.

“But it is your name,” Leia says.

Vader frowns. “Yes. And it is your name too.”

“So you’re really my Dad,” Leia says, and it’s not a question.

Vader nods, then stands and holds out his hand. “Will you come with me?” he asks.

Leia thinks, and that mysterious energy tells her, _Yes_. So she nods.

They walk out of the cave, hand in hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading, leave a kudo and maybe a comment? it makes me ridiculously happy to see comments okay :)


	5. chapter four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Where are you going?” Bail calls after him.  
> “There is still time,” Obi-Wan says.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> have you noticed i added the "lightsaber battles" tag? hmm...

Obi-Wan can sense the two figures up in the mountains from his position in the gardens, and it gives him chills.

They are both so similar. One is smaller, but still almost as powerful. It’s so familiar, yet strange at the same time.

The other is a presence he thought he had seen for the last time ten years ago, as it burned on Mustafar.

Obi-Wan shakes his head as the figures begin to move down the mountain — together. There is no sign of struggle. The smaller presence — who he knows to be Leia — goes with Vader willingly.

At that moment, as Obi-Wan makes his way towards the castle to alert someone, Bail comes rushing out.

“Leia’s gone,” he pants.

“I know,” Obi-Wan says. He looks to the mountain.

“She’s up there?” Bail asks.

Obi-Wan nods. 

“And is she… is she okay?” Bail asks tentatively.

“She is perfectly fine,” Obi-Wan says quietly. “She did not struggle.”

“You mean — she went with him?”

Obi-Wan nods again, looking down. “I’m sorry. But I will do all in my power to get her back.”

Vader and Leia have moved further down the mountain. Obi-Wan can sense them heading back around into the forest. He gathers up his robes and sets off.

“Where are you going?” Bail calls after him.

“There is still time,” Obi-Wan says.

Bail watches him disappear around the marble column.

 

+

 

Leia watches her father as he tweaks a small mechanism in his ship. She’s not entirely sure what it is, but it looks complicated. She traces shapes in the dirt with her feet.

“When can I see Da— I mean, Bail,” she asks. It feels strange to say her adoptive father’s first name.

Her _real_ father looks at her, frowning. “We’re not going back there,” he says shortly.

“Why not?”

“Because he’s not very nice,” her father tells her.

Leia crosses her arms. “ _I_ think he’s very nice!”

Her father imitates her posture, straightening up. “Leia, I don’t like your tone,” he says warningly. “Bail Organa is a traitor to the Empire. He is not somebody you should be friendly with.”

Leia frowns, trying to make sense of what her father is saying. She doesn’t _think_ Bail is a traitor to the Empire, and she wants to tell her father that. Maybe he made a mistake. But she looks at her father again and his yellow eyes flash dangerously, so she decides to stay quiet.

“I know this is hard, Leia,” her father says. “You’ve grown up in a way that was very different to what I wanted. But it can get better.”

Leia nods. Then, quietly, she asks, “You won’t hurt him, will you?”

Her father looks at her carefully. “Bail? He’s a traitor, Leia.”

“Please?” Leia’s lower lip trembles a little bit.

Her father considers. “Okay, I won’t hurt him,” he says finally.

Leia hugs him tightly around the middle. “Thank you,” she whispers.

Her father is caught by surprise at this affectionate gesture, but then he hugs her back.

“Soon we’ll be a big happy family. You and me and your brother,” her father tells her.

Leia’s eyes light up. “I have a brother?”

“Yes,” her father smiles. “His name is Luke.”

_Luke,_ Leia thinks. She knows that name. She thinks she might have dreamed it once.

“Do I have a Mum?” she asks.

Her father stiffens. “I don’t want to talk about that.”

Leia tilts her head. “It’s okay if she died, you can tell me that.”

“ _I don’t want to talk about it_ ,” her father repeats. His face has gone white, and his eyes look unfocused — as if he was seeing something that isn’t really there.

Leia frowns. “Okay.”

Her father seems to have finally finished whatever he was doing, and now he gestures to the ship entrance. “Come on,” he says.

Leia follows him in, and he helps her get into the co-pilot chair.

Suddenly, a cloaked figure runs out from the cover of the trees. 

“Dad!” Leia cries.

Her father’s eyes have narrowed, and there is a dangerous glint in them. “Stay here, Leia,” he says in a low voice. He takes a small metallic cylinder from his belt and exits the ship.

Leia watches her father cross the small clearing to the cloaked figure. He yells something that Leia can’t hear. Then a long, thin red beam emerges from the cylinder.

_Oh,_ Leia thinks, as the cloaked figure also ignites his lightsaber. Now she nows why the name Vader sounded familiar.

Her father is Darth Vader, the man in the black suit that towered over her, the man her father always warned her about.

As the two lightsabers clash, Leia begins to wonder if she has made the right choice.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading! i hope you enjoyed, and if you liked it, please leave a comment! i'm going to update tomorrow or the day after, i already have the chapter written! (and it's painful, very painful)


	6. chapter five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vader knows exactly what buttons to push, how to destroy Obi-Wan from the inside out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> trigger warning for violence?

Vader’s head is brimming with fury. He knew the cloaked figure as soon as it came running out of the woods. The last time he saw the figure was when it turned its back on him.

_Obi-Wan Kenobi_.

Vader’s lips curl back in a snarl. “Kenobi!” he roars, and ignites his lightsaber.

“Anakin, please,” Obi-Wan says, igniting his own lightsaber as a defensive measure.

Vader doesn’t bother replying. The sound of his old name sends him into a rage. He advances on Obi-Wan, bringing his lightsaber down in a powerful slice.

Neither of them sees the small girl in the ship, her hands pressed up against the glass, watching with a horrified expression.

Obi-Wan blocks Vader’s attack, but he is lucky. Years hiding away — _the coward_ , Vader thinks — has weakened the once great Jedi Master. He slips away, trying to stab into Vader’s ribs. Vader parries it easily. Ten years have passed since their last duel, and Vader’s fighting style has evolved. They are no longer equals.

“Are you surprised, _Kenobi_ ,” Vader says mockingly, “that I no longer suffer from my injuries? Did you feel remorse, _Master_ , after you mutilated me?”

He’s pleased to see that there are tears in the old man’s eyes.

“Do you ever wonder, _brother_ , that if you ever paid attention to me when I was your padawan, I wouldn’t have abandoned you?” Vader laughs derisively. “You’re just a weak old man,” he taunts as he blocks yet another of Obi-Wan’s attacks. 

Vader knows exactly what buttons to push, how to destroy Obi-Wan from the inside out.

“Do you ever wonder, _Obi-Wan_ , whether Satine would still love you after what you did to me?” he says cruelly. “I suppose it doesn't matter, does it? She’s dead, isn’t she?” Vader pauses, savouring the pain on Obi-Wan’s face. “She died right in front of you. And you didn’t save her.”

Obi-Wan recoils. “You—you dare—shut your mouth!” he screams.

“Oh, I dare,” Vader laughs coldly.

He moves forward.

And then he stabs Obi-Wan Kenobi through the stomach.

For a moment Obi-Wan’s face is simply shock, and Vader thinks that this is what Qui-Gon must have looked like before he died. 

Then he crumples to the ground, a gaping hole his abdomen. The smell of singed flesh and cloth fills the otherwise pleasant air between them.

Vader turns and walks away. Obi-Wan groans feebly, and Vader finds himself hoping that Obi-Wan might suffer before he dies.

 

+

 

When Vader enters the ship again, the first thing he sees is Leia, curled up on herself in the corner.

“You killed him,” she says quietly.

Vader frowns. “I didn’t want you to see that.”

“I saw it,” Leia says shortly.

“I’m sorry.”

Vader sits in the pilot’s seat. Leia slowly straps herself into her own seat.

“Let’s go home, Leia,” Vader says. They take off, Leia watching the Alderaani mountains and the white castle she once called home disappear.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i cried writing this so i hope you enjoyed it ahaha  
> if you did, please leave a kudo and maybe a comment? they are what keeps me going with this hellish au  
> thanks for reading!


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